


Fate’s Design

by nightlilly



Series: The Quirk Archives [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: (though that doesn’t mean he’s powerless), Altering Fate, Body Horror, Character Study, Distortion!Midoriya, Fate, Fate & Destiny, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Metamorphosis, Shinsou Hitoshi Does Not Have a Quirk, Shinsou Hitoshi is Quirkless, Spider!Shinsou, Spiral!Midoriya, Strings of Fate, Transformation, Web!Shinsou, slight body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightlilly/pseuds/nightlilly
Summary: Hitoshi has a very strange place in the world, but then again, who doesn’t?
Relationships: Shinsou Hitoshi & Annabelle Cane, background tododeku - Relationship
Series: The Quirk Archives [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734805
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	Fate’s Design

Mother always told him that his gift came from the spiders. She never called it a quirk like the others did. When referring to herself, or to him, she called it a gift and always told him to thank the spiders for it.

He used to believe it when he was little, the way some children would believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. He would bow whenever he saw a spider, thanking it. If he saw a spider, he would gently pick it up and place it out of harm's way. No need to crush something that had been kind to them. He loved his gift and he loved the spiders for giving it to him. Annabelle had made sure he cherished himself, that he knew that he was no less than anyone else, that he knew there was a place for him, a purpose.

It all changed when he started going to school. All men were not created equal, he realized, no matter what Annabelle had told him. They called him _evil_ because of what his quirk could do. A _freak_ because he talked to spiders. _Hopeless_ because he wanted to be a hero.

Hitoshi knew that they were all wrong, but even still, he stopped thanking the spiders. He started believing what everyone else did, that his gift was simply a quirk, no matter what Annabelle had told him.

Annabelle Cane. He called her Mother. At no point in time had she told him that she was his mother, but still - she was Mother all the same. And despite the fact that he no longer believed, at fifteen years of age, that spiders had anything to do with his quirk, he still did what Mother said.

Hitoshi didn't see the point of it anymore. Leaving things in strange places, talking to people he had no business talking to, just in general any errand she sent him on.

Brainwashing had nothing to do with spiders. It was simply a power that was apparently a combination of the quirks of the parents that had abandoned him because he was too difficult for them to handle. A warped combination of mind reading and speech mimicry, if he remembered them right, if he remembered the faces of the bastards that had beaten and bruised him, had left him muzzled and vulnerable on harsh streets that showed no mercy.

Annabelle never pushed him to do her strange errands. She asked once, and he would do them because he felt indebted for her taking him in. For her taking off his muzzle. For her loving him. So he might not believe her fairytales anymore, but he did her odd jobs. He talked to a pedestrian, he sent something through the mail, he left things for others to find them _just when they needed it._ It was his obligation to do it, a favour for a favour. She told him he never owed her anything, but he felt the need to. On the plus side, he saw a lot of things no one else did, squirrelled away in the nooks and crannies of places no one would have any business being otherwise. He probably knew the streets better than anyone else - hero, villain, civilian. Alleyways and side streets were an odd comfort, and he had no problems navigating them as long as he kept his head down and his mouth shut.

Hitoshi still cherished spiders no matter how old he got. He couldn't bring himself to kill them, not when Mother was so spider-like herself. Not when she smiled at him with fangs and spun webs between her fingers. He guessed that Annabelle's fairytales were something that would ensure he wasn't scared of her. Her quirk wasn't a mutant type, save for a few extra eyes and sharp teeth, but Annabelle had a certain air about her, one that made people flinch, to take another look. It both caused problems and made them go away. A look of trouble both warned people of potential dangers and attracted people looking for a fight. Regardless, Hitoshi had never been scared of her. He'd never had reason to be.

He could believe that _her_ quirk came from spiders. His, not so much.

Then again, if he knew then what he knew now, perhaps he would have been more comfortable with the notion that spiders were more like family than his own flesh and blood had been.

He'd been watching a lot more hero fights as of late, watching to see if there were any techniques he could apply to his training regime. It was on one of those days that he noticed something unusual.

Hitoshi firmly knew that his quirk didn't give him any mutations. It was an emitter quirk that had mental effects. He was painfully aware of what his quirk could and could not do, so he didn't think much of the calluses forming on the pads of his fingers.

Or at least he'd thought they were calluses. The drying skin had started off as nothing more than an annoyance.

He always found that he had a knack for climbing things. It was a natural instinct in children to climb things that were generally larger than them, which was a lot considering how small children are, but it was a trait that followed Hitoshi into his teenage years. He liked climbing things and he figured it would help him for his potential hero career. Since his quirk wasn't anything offensive, it would be more likely that he would join the General Studies stream, then try his luck at the Sports Festival. He assumed these calluses where just proof that his training was paying off.

Calluses were a normal outcome. The small, barb-like hairs that began to poke out of where they were beginning to form was not.

They were hard to spot at first. They started off a light purple, the same shade as his hair, but slowly the violet turned to black as they hardened over time. Still, it didn't bother him. It was only hair, and it made his hands slightly sticky, but it wasn't anything more than just something strange.

He kept up his training, as usual, but it wasn't until he spoke with Annabelle about possibly enrolling at UA that he began to worry.

"Not possible." She'd said, looking at him with a vacant stare. She often looked like that, as if she were looking at something that only she could see, a million miles away.

Hitoshi could only respond with a blank look of his own. "What do you mean? I've been training hard. I've been looking into places to start training in hand-to-hand combat. I-"

"No," she said again, tone as if she knew for a fact that he would fail the exam. Annabelle had never told him anything like that before. She had always been nurturing towards him, encouraging. She'd always told him that he would become a great hero, that he would do beautiful things with his life. She had never steered him away from trying to accomplish his goals and had never told him otherwise. The fact that she was doing so now, so bluntly, not only didn't make any sense but was torture in its own right.

"You will not pass the entrance exam for the hero course," she went on, her empty eyes meeting his. "No matter how much you prepare, no matter how much you train, someone with a gift like yours will not be able to pass."

_"Why not?!"_

"Because-" She paused as Hitoshi activated his quirk.

Each time Hitoshi uses his quirk, it was the same every single time. The target's eyes would go blank - similarly to how some would go white when they went blind - and they would jerk slightly before snapping to attention.

Annabelle did none of that.

"It is not what Fate decides." She smiled at him, baring her fangs, and he froze. It was possible for people to break out of his hold, no quirk was without its drawbacks.

Not once, not ever in his short life, had his quirk, his gift, failed him.

Mother put a hand on his shoulder, and Hitoshi tensed up. "Little Spider, your gift needs work. You should know better than for it to work on me."

"Is that why I won't pass - because my quirk isn't strong enough?" He pushed her back, and she let go of him, but there was a small thread now extending from her finger to his shoulder. He was angry, so incredibly angry. Annabelle had never warranted anything but his patience, his time. He had done everything he could to please her, and _this_ was the way she chose to respond, to stamp out his hopes and dreams?

"No." She rotated his wrist, gently wrapping the thread around her index finger before slightly tugging on it. It stayed stuck to him. "Fate has decided that you will not pass the entrance exam. That does not mean you will not get into the hero course. You will get into the hero course, but only after the Sports Festival. There is no other option."

"But I'm strong enough!" He argued. "All those idiots rely on their quirks - at least I can actually fight."

"You can," Annabelle agreed, shutting her eyes. "But that doesn't change anything. You are meant for great things, but not this. Fate does not need you in the hero course right now. They will need you later. Right now, you have more important things to do, little weaver."

"Like what?!" He exploded again, trying so hard to not activate his quirk. He wanted to know, _needed_ to know, but he felt that if he activated his ~~gift~~ quirk again, Annabelle would not be too happy. "What could possibly be more important?!"

She smiled, ruffling his hair.

"Find out what you are meant to do."

What he was meant to do was join the hero course, and nothing was going to stop him from trying - not Annabelle, not some stupid calluses, nothing.

He cried when he realized that she'd been right, not even bothering to move behind falling to his knees. His quirk could only work on humans. If he tried to go up against UA's robots they'd tear him to shreds, training or no. The entrance exam was tailored for people with offensive quirks, those that were designed to fight, to attack, to destroy. He couldn't even save a girl that was trapped under some rubble as he watched some idiot with no idea how to use his quirk break two of his legs and an arm, destroying a zero-pointer with a single punch.

~~Imagine his anger when he realized that that same idiot had gotten into the hero course, having destroyed not a single robot besides that one zero-pointer.~~

Annabelle had been right. He never had a chance at passing that exam, but he was not going to give her the satisfaction of her saying _I told you so,_ so he didn't go home. He couldn't take anything else going wrong that day.

Fate, however, as Annabelle had said, had other ideas for him.

 _Go now._ Go where? He didn't know why he'd thought that, but he started to walk. He didn't know where he was going but he was sure that it would not be towards home. Mother would be waiting for him.

_It's time._

Hitoshi didn't know why he started to wander, but he did, and soon he found himself very, very far from home in a place he didn't know. Still, he wandered as if he knew where he was going, as if his feet had memorized the route without him.

 _Do not shake her hand,_ was the thought that popped into his head as he rubbed at his face, and he didn't know why he thought this. Annabelle's hand? Who was _she?_ Why wasn't he supposed to shake her hand?

If he knew any better, he would've said it was like being stuck in his own quirk, doing things he had no control over. That sudden control was broken when he came to a door down a side-street, tucked away and hidden in an alleyway. It was as if his instructions had run out. He no longer knew what he was supposed to be doing, save for the fact that he wasn't supposed to shake someone's hand.

A man - a relatively normal-looking man - opened the door, and he was unsurprised by his sudden appearance, stepping aside to let Hitoshi in. Hitoshi, still confused, walked inside and was brought to the kitchen table, noticing that it had a very intricate spider pattern on it.

The guy must've been Mother's friend, then. Honestly, he shouldn't have been that surprised. Annabelle was so goddamn weird.

Hitoshi didn't even protest when a cup of tea was slid in front of him.

"It's not peppermint, is it?"

"No. I know you don't like it." The man sat down across from him.

Shinsou cocked an eyebrow. "Annabelle tell you that?"

"Didn't have to." He clarified, taking a sip of his own drink. "People like us are.....for simplicity's sake, I'll say allergic."

Hitoshi's eyes wandered to somewhere behind the man, to where a girl his age was watching him.

"Agnes," the man barked without turning around. "Don't hover."

The girl wandered into the kitchen, standing next to the man. They looked somewhat alike, both plain but in an odd way, so Hitoshi assumed they were father and daughter. She tilted her head to the side as she studied him, then stuck out her hand.

"Agnes," her father said again, this time in a warning tone. She spun on her heel and then left, but he was still watching from the staircase, peering between the posts.

 _Don't shake her hand._ Hitoshi now had a feeling that her quirk was a nasty one.

Without warning, the man reached over the table and grabbed Hitoshi by the wrist, yanking his hand towards him as he turned his hand over to study it, palm face up as he ran his fingers over Hitoshi's calluses.

"Those are coming along nicely," the man said, more to himself rather than to Hitoshi. "Haven't seen someone like you in a while."

"Someone like me?"

He nodded. "Like Annabelle. You might take a little longer than the others."

Hitoshi brought his free hand to rub at his temple. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The man said nothing, but rather smiled, and Hitoshi resisted the urge to shiver as it was the exact same smile Mother had when she had been able to resist his quirk.

_"Go to the basement."_

Hitoshi's body didn't protest as he stood, but his mind was screaming at him to run, to get out of that house, to get as far away from that basement as he possibly could. This wasn't like before, like the way his body seemed to know where to go. This was forceful, this was deliberate, this was not what he wanted to do.

His feet kept moving forward, no matter how much he tried to resist. Was this what it was like to be trapped inside his quirk, stuck in your own head?

 _Little spider,_ a voice whispered, and it sounded both like Annabelle's voice and not at all like hers at the same time, coming from somewhere - somewhere behind him, somewhere in front of him, somewhere, somewhere, ~~somewhere inside his head.~~

The voice continued as he made his way down the stairs and Hitoshi tried desperately to make himself trip, to fall. Perhaps he would end up with a broken limb but he would prefer it to whatever sinister thing was waiting for him, to what was keeping him trapped inside this nightmare.

_Why do you resist?_

He paused in the middle of the darkened room, the door to the staircase shutting behind him, the last of the light disappearing as the voice began to echo.

_This is what Fate wants for you._

Something snagged around his wrist, pinning his arm to his side. Another did the same to his other arm, and then to more wrapped around his legs, holding them in place.

It was only then that he was able to move, as the thick ropes began to dig into his skin, holding him back as he tried to run once more, more and more of them latching onto him.

_You do not decide, little spider._

Something, several somethings, began to crawl up his legs and down his arms, across his clothes and bare skin, making him shudder as he tried not to cry out lest they crawled inside him as he shut his eyes, tears welling up.

_You do not have any control. The sooner you understand that, the better it will be and the less it will sting._

More and more ropes began to wrap around his body, began to cover him up, began to encase him. They covered his ears, his eyes, his torso, his mouth, his hair, his arms, his legs. He couldn't even hear the skittering of those things - _spiders,_ he realized, they were spiders, and he wished that he hadn't treated them so harshly, that he hadn't ignored them and was convinced that this was somehow their revenge.

Everything was dark, everything was still, everything was silent ~~except for his muffled sobs.~~

Everything except for the voice.

_Don't fight Fate, little Weaver. It will only hurt you in the end. Fate is inevitable._

~~Hitoshi stopped fighting.~~

He woke up at home, feeling like both an eternity and a mere second had passed, his skin a mess of hives and blisters. The only thing that remained the same were the barbed calluses on the tips of his fingers.

A cold shower made the hives go away. A few glasses of water made his throat stop scratching.

The second and third pairs of arms, growing out of the sides of his torso, remained.

Hitoshi would have been lying if he had said, if telling the truth of this particular day, that he had been surprised. Something, though he wasn't sure what, told him this was how it was supposed to be. The arms worked as normal arms, and other than the need to now update the entirety of his wardrobe, he didn't see the need to panic.

This is what Fate had in store for him. So be it - there was no use in moping. It would be easier to adapt early on. One's dexterity ought to have changed drastically going from two arms to six.

Annabelle was in the kitchen, staring at his bedroom door as if she had been expecting him. She probably had been.

"You know you can fold them in if needed. Might be a bit more practical if you're going out."

The second she said it his arms moved, the bones and flesh and skin folding in on itself as if it were a reflexive impulse that he had known all along until he had just two arms again.

He looked at her with tired eyes. "Your initiation sucks ass."

"I know," she said in a sing-song voice, handing him a cup of tea. "That'll help your throat."

"Your friends are shitty," he croaked as he called over his shoulder as he retreated back into his room to get a shirt. He'd get the hand on the new limbs later ~~and not be the slightest bit surprised when he found they could become more spider-like~~ , but for now, he had something to do.

He now understood Annabelle's odd jobs, the way they came to her. It was intuition, plain and simple. It was a feeling of things needing to be in the right place at the right time.

It was the whims of Fate.

This time he needed no objects. No flashlights or lighters or anything. He would just need himself, at the right moment, at the right time.

Hitoshi walked streets he had never walked before, but he found himself where he needed to be, deep in the heart of Musutafu.

There was a boy standing there, and Hitoshi recognized him as the boy that had broken his limbs during the entrance exam, the boy's arm in a cast, and as he watched him, Hitoshi could tell that this boy was like him.

Something like him, what he was, yet not quite the same.

As he walked past the boy, who was staring at an odd yellow door that made Hitoshi's stomach churn, he did what he had seen Mother do several times before. With practised ease he brought a finger to his lips, using his teeth to pull out a particularly hard to reach thread from underneath his fingernail. He ghosted his hand over the back of the boy's neck, attaching the thread to him as Hitoshi kept on walking unnoticed.

Another boy was passing by as well, on he didn't recognize with mismatched eyes and mismatched hair. Hitoshi's instinct told him that the thread was also needed here, so he "accidentally" bumped into the other, mumbling a quick _sorry._

He now knew that there was no such thing as accidents.

When he'd walked a short distance - far enough to give the two of them the privacy they needed but close enough to watch - he turned back to face them. The mismatched boy was about to walk by without a second thought but then-

Hitoshi tugged on the thread as the green-haired boy reached for the door.

-the boy turned around and snagged onto the other boy's good wrist, the one about to turn the handle.

"Wait!"

The green-haired boy looked up at the other, who frowned and shook his head.

"I don't know who you are," he said, "but I feel like you're about to make a big mistake."

The green-haired boy dropped his arm as they continued to talk, but Hitoshi didn't care as he walked off. Those two would be important, yes, but this wasn't where he needed to be at the moment.

There was work to be done.


End file.
